CVE-2021-32690
HIGHCVE-2021-32690 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Information Exposure vulnerability in helm.sh/helm/v3. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2021-32690 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Helm passes repository credentials to alternate domain
Real-World Exposure
helm.sh/helm/v3Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Helm is a tool for managing Charts (packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources). In versions of helm prior to 3.6.1, a vulnerability exists where the username and password credentials associated with a Helm repository could be passed on to another domain referenced by that Helm repository. This issue has been resolved in 3.6.1. There is a workaround through which one may check for improperly passed credentials. One may use a username and password for a Helm repository and may audit the Helm repository in order to check for another domain being used that could have received the credentials. In the index.yaml file for that repository, one may look for another domain in the urls list for the chart versions. If there is another domain found and that chart version was pulled or installed, the credentials would be passed on.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | helm.sh/helm/v3 | all versions | 3.6.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for helm.sh/helm/v3. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update helm.sh/helm/v3 to 3.6.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32690 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2021-32690 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2021-32690. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes: In Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (RHACM) the affected components are using helm chart provided by the installer, so components are not using untrusted charts except in the application-lifecycle area. For this reason we marked the impact as low.…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-32690 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2021-32690 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.